Ben Affleck saved from solitude

Oct 11, 2007, 8:00 GMT

Ben Affleck (2-L) poses with unidentified members of the African Children\'s Choir at the third annual One X One benefit gala in Toronto, Canada, 09 September 2007. EPA/WARREN TODA

Ben Affleck claims Matt Damon saved him from being a "loner".

The actor, who starred alongside best friend Matt in 'Good Will Hunting', reached rock bottom when he started at the University of Vermont and begged Matt to rescue him.

Ben told Parade magazine: "I felt alone. Two weeks after I got to Vermont, I called my girlfriend's room, and some guy answered the phone!

"Then, when I was playing an intramural basketball game, I fractured my hip. I was miserable. I was now on crutches in the coldest university in America, living in the dorm farthest from the main campus, and I didn't know a soul, nobody!

"I ate alone and skipped classes for five weeks. Then I called Matt, who was at Harvard University. I told him, 'You've got to pick me up! I can't walk that well. Come and get me now!'

"Matt was there in six hours. That was the last I ever saw of the University of Vermont. I never went back. I don't think I have any credits. It was not money well spent."

Ben also revealed he can't bear to be parted from Violet, his 22-month-old daughter with wife Jennifer Garner.

He said: "The best thing that ever happened to me is Violet. She is happy as hell and talks like crazy! She has the ability to make me smile and feel so good and be so charmed that, when I'm not with her for a while, all I want to do is go home, just to be around her again."

Ben and Jennifer have already started looking at schools in Los Angeles, New York and Georgia - where the family have a home - even though Violet is yet to turn two.

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